Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A34315
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The old batchelour a comedy, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal, by Their Majesties servants / written by Mr. Congreve.
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Congreve, William, 1670-1729.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing C5863; ESTC R1182
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51,682
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70
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THE Old Batchelour A COMEDY As it is ACTED at the Theatre Royal BY Their MAJESTIES Servants Written by Mr. Congreve Quem tulit ad Scenam ventoso gloria Curru Exanimat lentus Spectator sedulus inflat Sic leve sic parvum est animum quod laudis avarum Subruit aut resicit Horat. Epist. I. Lib. II. LONDON Printed for Peter Buck at the Sign of the Temple near the Temple-gate in Fleet-street 1693. To the Right Honourable Charles Lord Clifford of Lanesborough c. My Lord IT is with a great deal of Pleasure that I lay hold on this first Occasion which the Accidents of my Life have given me of writing to your Lordship For since at the same time I write to all the World it will be a means of publishing what I would have every Body know the Respect and Duty which I owe and pay to you I have so much Inclination to be yours that I need no other Engagement But the particular Ties by which I am bound to your Lordship and Family have put it out of my power to make you any Complement since all Offers of my self will amount to no more than an honest Acknowledgment and only shew a willingness in me to be grateful I am very near wishing That it were not so much my Interest to be your Lordships Servant that it might be more my Merit not that I would avoid being obliged to you but I would have my own Choice to run me into the Debt that I might have it to boast I had distinguished a Man to whom I would be glad to be obliged even without the hopes of having it in my Power ever to make him a return It is impossible for me to come near your Lordship in any kind and not to receive some Favour and while in appearance I am only making an Acknowledgment with the usual underhand dealing of the World I am at the same time insinuating my own Interest I cannot give your Lordship your due without tacking a Bill of my own Priviledges 'T is true if a Man never committed a Folly he would never stand in need of a Protection But then Power would have nothing to do and good Nature no occasion to shew it self and where those Vertues are 't is pity they should want Objects to shine upon I must confess this is no reason why a Man should do an idle thing nor indeed any good Excuse for it when done yet it reconciles the uses of such Authority and Goodness to the necessities of our Follies and is a sort of Poetical Logick which at this time I would make use of to argue your Lordship into a Protection of this Play It is the first Offence I have committed in this kind or indeed in any kind of Poetry tho' not the first made publick and therefore I hope will the more easily be pardoned But had it been Acted when it was first written more might have been said in its behalf Ignorance of the Town and Stage would then have been Excuses in a young Writer which now almost four Years experience will scarce allow of Yet I must declare my self sensible of the good Nature of the Town in receiving this Play so kindly with all its Faults which I must own were for the most part very industriously covered by the care of the Players for I think scarce a Character but receiv'd all the Advantage it would admit of from the justness of Action As for the Criticks my Lord I have nothing to say to or against any of them of any kind from those who make just Exceptions to those who find fault in the wrong place I will only make this general Answer in behalf of my Play an Answer which Epictetus advises every Man to make for himself to his Censurers viz. That if they who find some Faults in it were as intimate with it as I am they would find a great many more This is a Confession which I need not to have made but however I can draw this use from it to my own Advantage that I think there are no Faults in it but what I do know which as I take it is the first step to an amendment Thus I may live in hopes sometime or other of making the Town amends but you my Lord I never can tho' I am ever Your Lordships most obedient and most humble Servant Will. Congreve To Mr. CONGREVE WHEN Vertue in pursuit of Fame appears And forward shoots the growth beyond the Years We timely court the rising Hero's Cause And on his side the Poet wisely draws Bespeaking him hereafter by Applause The days will come when we shall all receive Returning Interest from what now we give Instructed and supported by that Praise And Reputation which we strive to raise Nature so coy so hardly to be Woo'd Flies like a Mistress but to be pursu'd O CONGREVE boldly follow on the Chase She looks behind and wants thy strong Embrace She yields she yields surrenders all her Charms Do you but force her gently to your Arms Such Nerves such Graces in your Lines appear As you were made to be her Ravisher DRYDEN has long extended his Command By Right divine quite through the Muses Land Absolute Lord and holding now from none But great Apollo his undoubted Crown That Empire settled and grown old in Pow'r Can wish for nothing but a Successor Not to enlarge his Limits but maintain Those Provinces which he alone could gain His eldest Wicherly in wise Retreat Thought it not worth his quiet to be great Loose wandring Etherege in wild Pleasures lost And foreign Int'rests to his hopes long lost Poor Lee and Otway dead CONGREVE appears The Darling and last Comfort of his Years May'st thou live long in thy great Masters smiles And growing under him adorn these Isles But when when part of him be that but late His Body yielding must submit to Fate Leaving his deathless Works and thee behind The natural Successor of his Mind Then may'st thou finish what he has begun Heir to his Merit be in Fame his Son What thou hast done shews all is in thy Power And to Write better only must Write more 'T is something to be willing to commend But my best Praise is that I am your Friend THO. SOUTHERNE To Mr. CONGREVE THe Danger 's great in these censorious days When Criticks are so rife to venture Praise When the infectious and ill-natured Brood Behold and damn the Work because 't is good And with a proud ungenerous Spight would try To pass an Ostrocism on Poetry But you my Friend your Worth does safely bear Above their Spleen you have no cause for fear Like a well-metled Hawk you took your flight Quite out of reach and almost out of sight As the strong Sun in a fair Summers day You rise and drive the Mists and Clowds away The Owls and Bats and all the Birds of Prey Each Line of yours like polisht Steel's so hard In Beauty safe it wants